KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

June 14 through June 20, 2021

Things unfold pretty calmly as the Sun spends its last week in Gemini, encouraging us to integrate all the new ideas and information we've learned over the past three weeks. A Leo Moon will hang in the heavens Monday and Tuesday, bringing out our generous and heart-based sides. Details and organization will be the themes on Wednesday and Thursday under a Virgo Moon, so save those sorts of tasks for mid-week. A loving Libra Moon will move us into the weekend Friday and Saturday, highlighting relationships and a return to fairness and balance. On Sunday Jupiter will turn retrograde, but we may not even notice, as we'll be drifting through the spiritual and intuitive tones of the Scorpio Moon. After a month of information overload and two eclipses, this weekend is best spent regrouping before we move into a new season and all the wonders that await us!

An Excerpt from Reclaiming Wellness by Jovanka Ciares

Wellness is for everyone: young and old, sick and healthy, rich and poor, and all races and ethnicities. Wellness also includes everything, or all aspects of our lives, and the ultimate goal is to achieve positive, sustainable, long-lasting changes. Wellness is not a single thing we do, it doesn’t happen all at once, and our wellness practices should increase happiness, not feel like a chore.

Ideally, wellness is how we unlock and access the full potential lying within. This isn’t about following lifestyle rules to a T, but rather understanding our choices and owning them. We will certainly encounter roadblocks during this process, and that’s to be expected! Pursuing wellness with an “all-or-nothing” attitude is a nonstop ticket to frustration and failure. Instead, if we accept ourselves, and trust the natural process, things will slowly fall into place. Wellness is about creating balance and strengthening the connection between our physical, mental, and spiritual selves. As a result, what we do to achieve wellness will vary depending on what needs more attention at any particular time. For instance, if our spiritual life is strong but our physical activity isn’t, then we might find balance by focusing more on our physical self, while continuing to strengthen all the other parts that make us who we are.

In the big picture, wellness is about being at peace in and with the world. We are each an integral part of the whole that we call the universe. The energy that emanates from each of us, as well as from plants and animals, is interconnected. Our daily choices touch millions of lives, whether we realize it or not. Being aware of this interconnectedness fosters a holistic awareness of our place in the world and helps us make positive, conscious choices every day in our lives.

Health in the United States Today
The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, and it knows how to spend! Americans spend more on healthcare per person than any other country, yet the nation consistently ranks lowest in comparative healthcare outcomes. I’ve often wondered why we worry so much about terrorism and natural disasters when the standard American diet is what we should fear the most:

In the United States, approximately 33 percent of adults are overweight, another 38 percent are obese, and 8 percent are extremely obese.
Heart disease, stroke, and cancer — diseases affected by diet and lifestyle — account for over 
50 percent of all deaths in the United States each year.
Nearly half (47 percent) of American adults have high blood pressure, a precursor of heart disease.
About 38 percent of Americans have high cholesterol, a major cause of heart attack and stroke.
About 80 percent of heart disease–related deaths can be prevented with diet and lifestyle choices.
In America, 50 million people have at least one autoimmune disorder that reduces their quality of life.
The United States has one of the lowest life expectancies in the industrialized world.

Reclaiming Wellness: Own Your History, Own Your Health
Some of today’s most popular wellness practices can trace their history to parts of the world and cultures historically populated by people of color. Every society has pursued wellness, and as a woman of color living in the United States, one of my goals is to share this multicultural history and to encourage all people, but especially people of color, to embrace the knowledge and wisdom of their particular ancestry and heritage. To me, owning your history is a part of owning your health and creating your own
personal wellness journey. Yoga, for example, is now a very popular and widespread wellness practice, yet it’s one of the world’s oldest physical disciplines, having been developed in northern India over five thousand years ago.

Meanwhile, the use of plants as medicine — that is, herbalism and the use of modern supplements — has been part of every culture and every ethnic group since the beginning of time. In South America, shamans have been helping people heal using medicinal plants since precolonial times. Similarly, most ancient cultures developed their own plant-based diets to foster good health, diets that emphasized mostly local plants, grains, nuts, and seeds, while consuming expensive animal flesh only in small amounts and on special occasions.

Today, the wellness community invites people to incorporate ingredients from all cultures into their daily diets, sometimes touting them as “superfoods.” Yet I believe that learning the history of these foods and their health benefits can excite you to embrace them. In in-person workshops, I include popular herbal blends and ingredients with medicinal properties, making sure to explain the places these amazing ingredients come from, honoring the land and the people who carried their knowledge from generation to generation. If the workshop is about stress management, for example, I often incorporate adaptogenic botanicals indigenous to every corner of the world to emphasize how almost every culture has had amazing products and practices that we can still use today: maca from the Andes Mountains in South America, ashwagandha from the dry regions of India and Africa, and aloe vera from the Arabian Peninsula. This inclusivity is a powerful educational tool. It reminds us that these foods are part of our shared human legacy, our DNA, whatever our personal background or culture.

I want every single person to know that their culture has played a role in the wellness practices that have become popular in the West. These practices are truly amazing at helping us restore and maintain health, and using them is part of how we honor the legacy of those who came before us.

Jovanka Ciares is the author of Reclaiming Wellness and several other titles. A certified wellness expert, integrative herbalist, nutrition educator, and coach, she offers lectures and workshops in Spanish and English. Visit her online at jovankaciares.com.

Printed with permission from New World Library.

I recently had an experience that I can't consciously remember. I'm told that a friend drove me to the ER of our local hospital. Earlier I supposedly seemed very confused and disoriented when she called on the phone; I didn't even know who she was. I spent a couple of hours or more in the ER getting all sorts of tests like CAT scans to see if I'd had a stroke or what had happened. It turns out I had hyponatremia, and I had to spend a couple of days in the hospital until my electrolytes returned to normal. (I'd been drinking too much water and restricting the salt in my diet.) Anyway, I'm told I answered questions while in the ER and even flirted with the docs, but I don't remember any of that. I gave them my social security number, age, etc., yet I don't remember doing any of this! I don't even remember being taken to the ER in the first place! I came to several hours later in my hospital room, hooked up to a saline solution. I'm worried that this could happen again, and have been upping the sea salt in my diet and lowering my liquid intake. How was I able to function supposedly lucidly and yet not be mentally there? Where did the real me go during this time? This has never happened to me before, and I sure hope it never will again!

Kay

Susyn:

Hyponatremia is not a well known condition, though it happens often to people who are out of balance in terms of their salt and water intake. It is a very serious condition that can result in confusion, loss of memory and hallucinations. Because it causes swelling in the cells of the body (including the brain cells), hyponatremia can cause disorientation and blackouts.

In this state, our inhibitions and sense of propriety fall to the wayside, hence your flirtation with the doctors and your revelation of private information. The real you did not go away; in fact, we might say that it came out like never before. Though we have all learned to maintain certain boundaries, medical conditions and drugs can cause us to forget all about that. As it is our intellect that monitors our thoughts and actions, your condition caused you to bypass learned behaviors to let it all hang out.

Unsettling events like this can affect us on a deep spiritual level. What you experienced has now shifted your awareness and brought you to a deeper understanding of yourself. Although revealing private information to the medical staff and acting inappropriately with the doctors may not be something you would normally do, with your reasoning mind out of the way, your innocent inner child could come out to play. Now that it has been let out, you have learned some important lessons.

First of all, it sounds like you have new awareness of what it means to take good care of your health. I feel this physical imbalance mirrors a spiritual imbalance within you. I'm sure that spending a few days in a hospital made you more aware of your tendency to go too far in trying to be responsible, and encouraged you to reach for a more balanced, moderate approach.

When we focus on one aspect of our lives this intently, it actually allows other areas of our lives to be transformed without us being aware of it. I often say that while we are focusing all of our faculties on addressing a serious problem, the Universe will start rearranging the furniture behind our backs, so I wouldn't be surprised if you begin to notice other changes in the coming months.

Life threatening experiences tend to spark rapid spiritual awakening. For example, just as would be true if you had had a near death experience, you may experience a sudden spiritual awakening or new and unusual psychic phenomena. Life may suddenly seem more vibrant, and you may begin to make big changes in your life or get involved in activities you never considered before.

Though I'm sure you never want to go through an experience like this again, the gifts that come from having gone through it once will be immeasurable. Above all, I hope you decide to let your inner child come out and play more often!

*****

Oceania:

The real you was there all along. The reason you don't remember everything is because your awareness was impaired, much as if you'd had too much to drink. Alcoholics have blackouts and can't remember what they said or did the night before; you experienced much the same thing! Understanding what happened to you physically will be reassuring. Understanding the distress you still feel today will provide a lesson in trust that will last a lifetime.

Every cell in your body has a membrane that allows water to pass in or out. Sodium (salt) can't pass through it. Water migrates in or out of cells until the concentration of sodium is equal on both sides. When you drank tons of water and cut out salt, the concentration of sodium in your bloodstream dropped. As our bodies are always seeking balance, water moved into your cells to dilute the sodium inside, which caused the cells to swell up like tiny water balloons.

Most cells swell with ease, but brain cells are confined by the skull. Swollen brain cells increase cranial pressure and lead to water intoxication with symptoms similar to alcohol intoxication including personality changes, confusion and loss of awareness. Athletes are at risk for this condition because they lose salt through sweating and consume large quantities of liquid to quench their thirst. They can avoid what you suffered by drinking sports drinks instead of water.

At the hospital, sodium was added to your bloodstream, which prompted water to move back out of your cells. Your brain swelling lessened and normal consciousness returned. Even though you've corrected your diet, a year later you're still worried this might happen again. This tells me that what you fear most is being out of control.

It is tricky to find the right balance between surrender and control. This is reflected in the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Some people surrender too much and passively accept anything and everything, while others don't surrender enough and struggle to control everything. I'm thinking you lean towards that end of the spectrum.

Just as your body needs to balance water and salt, your spirit needs to balance surrender and control. To do this, you must learn to make conscious choices whenever you can, but when you find yourself in a situation beyond your control, choose to gracefully surrender to a HIGHER power.

You were not conscious during this event but your observant friend and the hospital staff provided you with loving care. You can use this profound experience to learn to relax and trust that if you do YOUR part in life, the rest will be taken care of!

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.